Sermons and Biblical Studies

Hubble Space Telescope A colleague of mine at NASA was assigned to prepare a presentation on lessons learned from our bad experiences with the Hubble Space Telescope. On his chart at the briefing, lesson No. 1 read: “In naming your mission, never us a word that rhymes with trouble.” Reader’s Digest, March, 1993, p. 128

Joe Louis Joe Louis was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 until he retired in 1949. In 1946 Louis prepared to defend his title against a skilled fighter named Billy Conn. Louis was warned to watch out for Conn’s great speed and his tactic of darting in to attack and then moving quickly out … Continue reading “Hide”

Abraham Lincoln In the early years of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln became so angered at the inactivity of Union commander George McClellan that the president wrote his commanding general this one-sentence letter: “If you don’t want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while. Respectfully, A. Lincoln.” Today in … Continue reading “Hesitation”

Importance of Heroes Americans are living in a post-heroic age, where young adults are much less likely than their parents to have national role models. A survey by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University shows that 60 percent of adults have no heroes. Of those who do have heroes, most said their heroes are … Continue reading “Hero”

Imposing on the Text We cannot arrive at a true understanding of God’s Word by detaching texts from their contexts to find personal meaning in them and be feeding them into the world of our private preoccupations and letting that world impose new senses on old phrases. A theological student whom later I knew as … Continue reading “Hermeneutics”

The Eagle While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it … Continue reading “Heritage”

Resource •      What the Bible Teaches About the Church, J. Balchin, Tyndale, p. 38.

Resource •      John R. W. Stott, The Preacher’s Portrait, Some New Testament Word Studies, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1961), pp. 33ff

Ernest Hemingway Writer Ernest Hemingway, whose novels The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and A Farewell to Arms are an integral part of our American literature, was the son of devout Christian parents. His writing was forceful, action-packed, and often brutal but exhibited none of the belief his parents tried to instill … Continue reading “Hemingway, Ernest”

Paderewski When Jan Paderewski was to leave his native Poland to play his first recital in London, he asked an influential compatriot to give him a letter of introduction to a leading figure in Britain’s musical world, who might be of assistance should anything go amiss. The letter was handed to him in a sealed … Continue reading “Help”